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Syrian protesters clash with police

DAMASCUS, Syria, April 1 (UPI) -- Angry Syrians clashed with police across the country Friday as they protested President Bashar Assad's failure to lift a state of emergency.

Police used gunfire against demonstrators in a suburb of Damascus, CNN reported. One man was reportedly hit with a rubber bullet in the head.

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In al-Sanameen, police blocked about 3,300 demonstrators from the center of the city, one man who did not want to be named told CNN.

"I don't know if they are going to be allowed in. There is a lot of army, a lot of troops," he said.

"People are cheering for peace and freedom."

One pro-reform group used Facebook to build support for demonstrations, including instructions on how to deal with tear gas. Syrian Revolution 2011 has more than 100,000 fans.

The pro-democracy protest -- coinciding with protests planned in the capitals of Yemen and Jordan -- comes two days after Assad gave a nationally televised address in which he refused to make concessions, including the lifting of the severe 1963 emergency law that suspends most constitutional protections, bans demonstrations and allows security forces to detain and arrest people without charge.

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More than two weeks of demonstrations have posed an unprecedented challenge to Assad's 11-year rule and the power-consolidating regime his father, Hafez Assad, began in 1970 with bloodless coup.

The pro-reform protests are fueled by economic problems and demands for political and civil liberties and an end to alleged corruption.

Large demonstrations were held Friday in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, The New York Times reported. Both supporters and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh took to the streets. At last week's rally, government-linked snipers killed more than 50 protesters, prompting a wave of defections of high-level government officials.

"I will spend blood for the sake of these people," Saleh said in a short speech to his supporters. "I will make costly and precious sacrifices for the sake of the Yemeni masses."

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